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Date: 4/12/2021
GRANBY – Residents in Granby are working to keep the town and streets free of litter.
Jaimelee LeBreton, who serves as the chapter leader of Keep Granby Beautiful, said the group was formed in the spring of 2018. She said the group began initially as an effort to clean up the town for its 250th anniversary celebration. “We were having a 250th celebration that year and I thought it would be nice to clean it up because people would be visiting,” she said.
However, once the group started to pick up the trash around town they began to notice how it seemed to accumulate in the spring. “It was the first time I think that I kind of noticed that litter seems to magically appear in March or April. There’s no vegetation and the snow melts,” she said.
Following what LeBreton said was “a really good year” for residents participating in town cleanup, she said the group joined part of a larger group called Keep Massachusetts Beautiful, which is part of Keep America Beautiful. Becoming part of the group, she said, took place last February in 2020, however “with COVID everyone wanted to stay inside.”
The past two years, she said, the group had “dwindled off a little” with regard to hosting group cleanups. However, she said, “This year we’re trying to get people involved for real,” adding that she was determined to get the group together again this year.
Already she said the group had gotten together for “a couple group events.” She said the events had been small, simply because of how small the community of Granby was, but were still successful in getting litter picked up. “We got a whole bunch of garbage off the street,” she said.
LeBreton said that in addition to going out with the group, a large number of individuals, “go out by themselves with their family” to pick up litter. “I realized a lot of people, especially women, didn't want to go out alone. So I scheduled a bunch of group events this month, especially because it's Earth month,” she said.
The group pickups usually last for about an hour and a half, she said, because “people get burned out, it’s tiresome, and a little depressing to see all this stuff on the side of the road.” LeBreton said the group was also planning to launch an adopt a street program. “Once April is over and the group events are over, I want people to get out and adopt part of a street to keep clean,” she said.
During group pickups, LeBreton said people take precautions such as social distancing, but also to make sure no one is injured by traffic. “We keep our distance from each other and we have some vests to show we’re brightly colored and encourage everyone to wear gloves,” she said. “We also have litter grabbers so we’re not touching the stuff. We use regular safety precautions like walking against traffic. We don’t assume cars will see you, you never know.”
LeBreton said the group is also working to bring awareness to current legislation that would require a deposit on nips bottles, similar to other items such as cans and bottles. “We’re basically just trying to get more awareness and sign the change.org thing so we can make legislators know we want this,” she said.
She added that the number of nips bottles that were picked up when the group collected trash was high. “We just did a cleanup with the four of us in this one little area, we picked up 264 nips. If there was a five cent deposit, that’s like $13. It would give people incentive to not chuck them out the window,” she said. “We still have a lot of returnables that end up on the side of the road, but I think it’d be worse if there wasn’t a deposit.”
Picking up litter, she said, helps make the town look cleaner, but also providers a safer, cleaner environment for wildlife. “It seems obvious why we shouldn’t litter, but obviously a lot of people do it, so I don’t know if it’s not obvious to everyone why we shouldn’t litter,” she said. “Not littering makes for a cleaner, greener environment, it helps wildlife, especially aquatic wildlife because a lot of the plastic ends up in the ocean.”
Additionally, she said cleaning up the streets, “creates a sense of pride.” She said, “If a community looks clean, you feel good about it.”
She said while it feels like a losing battle sometimes, ultimately she just wants to create awareness regarding the problem. “We just want to keep our streets clean, which seems like a losing battle sometimes. If we have more awareness on how to fix the problem and more effort, then we can get more people out there,” she said.
Those interested in joining the group or posting photos of their own personal litter pickups can do so by joining the group’s Facebook page, Keep Granby Beautiful.